Bacon kosher for ‘Asher Lev’

Stage version opens Off Broadway in November

Thesp Jenny Bacon has signed on to join Ari Brand and Mark Nelson in an upcoming Off Broadway transfer of the Long Wharf Theater’s well-received stage adaptation of “My Name is Asher Lev.”

Brand, the actor who had been set to play the main character in the 2009 revival of “Broadway Bound” before it was scuttled, and Nelson both starred in the title’s Long Wharf bow earlier this year. Bacon, an Off Broadway vet who appeared in the recent preem of Sam Shepard play “Heartless,” takes over a part originally portrayed by Melissa Miller.

Based on the 1972 novel by Chaim Potok, “Asher Lev” follows a young Hasidic Jewish man (Brand) whose skill and passion for painting causes clashes with his family and his community. Nelson and Bacon play Asher’s parents in the three-thesp adaptation.

Gordon Edelstein, a.d. of New Haven’s Long Wharf, helms the play adaptation by Aaron Posner. Edelstein’s Long Wharf staging of “The Glass Menagerie” went on to an Off Broadway run in 2010.

The Gotham incarnation of “Asher Lev” will play Off Broadway’s Westside Theater, the two-stage venue that also currently houses “Old Jews Telling Jokes.” Produced by commercial producer Darren Bagert (who has been on the producing teams of Rialto shows including “The Best Man” and “Porgy and Bess”), “Asher Lev” is currently penciled in for an 18-week run that begins previews Nov. 8 ahead of a Nov. 28 opening.